Pestrup burial ground

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Coordinates: 52 ° 52 '28.9 "  N , 8 ° 26' 57.8"  E

Pestrup burial ground
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Pestrup burial ground

Pestrup burial ground

location Lower Saxony , Germany
Location Wildeshausen rural community
Grave field of Pestrup (Lower Saxony)
Pestrup burial ground
When ( Bronze Age and Iron Age ),
around 900 to 200 BC Chr.
Where Rural community Wildeshausen ,
district of Oldenburg / Lower Saxony

The Pestrup burial ground in western Lower Saxony is located about 2.5 km south-southeast of the Wildeshauser village, halfway to the Wildeshauser peasantry Pestrup and is under natural and historical monument standing heath of the nature park Wilde Geest . The approximately 30 hectare area is located within the nature reserve Pestruper Gräberfeld and Rosengarten . With over 530 larger and smaller burial mounds , it is the largest Bronze and Iron Age necropolis in northern Central Europe. The burial ground is part of the Route of the Megalithic Culture and is about 1 km west of the Hunte ; in the east it is bounded by the Pestruper Moor .

Excavations, findings and finds

Already in the 19th century there were rather uncontrolled investigations and excavations by pastors, teachers and pharmacists. Smaller excavations were carried out by the Oldenburg Museum in 1876, 1880 and 1882, which had a larger excavation carried out in 1938. Another major excavation took place from 1958 to 1959 under the direction of Johannes Pätzold. The area was declared an "unlimited excavation protection area" in 1992. A connection to the two so-called " large stones ", passage graves to be classified as giant beds, about one kilometer south of the burial ground, could not be proven.

However, the excavation of 1938 was able to prove a late Neolithic settlement below the burial ground ; this chronological classification also applies to six large hills, three of which were referred to as "royal hills". Most of the hills with a diameter of around 8 m are assumed to have been formed in the Early Iron Age. The oldest Bronze Age find, at least until 2003, is a sword that was discovered in 1909 south of the concentration of tumuli. While the furnishings in the graves show influences from the more southern, Celtic cultures, the ceramic tradition is based on local techniques and raw materials.

Burial mound

Bronze Age flat ax from the Pestrup burial ground

The approximately one meter high circular burial mounds date from around 900 to 200 BC. BC, so belong to the late Bronze and Iron Ages . During these seven centuries, the remains of the previously cremated corpses, which were discovered in situ during the excavations in urns , were buried in the mounds of earth . The mounds are 6 to 12 meters in diameter. Individual excavations revealed that the burial mounds usually each contained an urn burial; Several burials have also been found in some hills.

In the northern part of the burial ground there are some much larger, plate-like mounds of about 1.20 m high, with a diameter of about 30 m, which is why they are also called King's Mounds . However, these are probably not graves, but Bronze Age cremation sites, in which graves were only dug later.

Another type of grave is formed by around 14 long ramparts similar to high fields in the middle of the burial field. A "long hill" examined in 1959, which was 40 cm high, 8 m wide and 33 m long, contained a bed of bones and an iron needle. Underneath there was another burial mound, almost completely covered. Under this, in turn, was a pyre with a corpse fire and iron additions, namely belt hooks and buckles, as well as two clay pots. The burials took place in quick succession around 400 BC. Instead of. Excavation manager Johannes Pätzold interpreted the plow furrows under the burial mound as a sign of ritual plowing in the context of the cult of the dead. A sword blade about 50 cm long was dated to the older Bronze Age.

Grave goods

In addition to the corpse burn in the over 500 grave sites, there were also additions. In addition to clay pots, these were mainly jewelry and a whole wagon. However, these grave goods are badly damaged by the act of burning, but also by corrosion. Some of the jewelry additions are quite large, bronze necklaces and bracelets, which often contained a clay core. There were also chains made of bronze and glass beads. Garment pins and fragments of belt fittings represent the use of iron at the time. While the procurement of bronze required extensive trade links, iron ore could be extracted locally, which may indicate a contraction in trade links. Some jewelry additions are stylistically similar to those from southern Germany and refer to Celtic origins.

The only so far proven car, the existence of which proves the prominent position of the dead, is only documented in a few iron artifacts, including a typical axle nail.

Interpretation in the time of National Socialism

In the time of National Socialism , due to the size of the burial ground, information about numerous questions of the “Germanic” culture was expected before the first systematic excavations were carried out. Attempts were made to ascertain the importance of the site in connection with those ideas that had been cultivated for a long time and which under the National Socialists were exaggerated into a German cult. According to Hermann Wille in 1933, the slightest clues were interpreted according to these ideas, with excessive imagination. For example, a whole series of expectations was associated with the popular name "rose garden" for the burial ground. Without further ado, the "rose garden" was interpreted as "Roßgarten" and, on this basis, was subjected to an overflowing chain of conclusions in connection with horses:

“Rather, it can be assumed that a horse enclosure in the immediate vicinity on the river gave the name to this place. There is hardly any such well-preserved system in Germany. A track several meters wide surrounds the large, oval, leveled area measuring 140 meters by 100 meters. In the middle place, fighting games will have been performed at the cult festivals. Spear throwing, wrestling, fencing and stone throwing as well as the ritual weapons dances of the youths mentioned by Tacitus between swords and spears must have taken place at this place. In peacetime, the hundreds of neighboring districts will have held their competitions here. The outer track surrounding the battlefield will have been used for foot races and horse races. All around a naturally existing, amphitheatrically descending embankment offered space for thousands of people. The area was laid out in such a way that on the rising oval side, comparable to the “main grandstand”, the audience had the sun behind them at lunchtime. This battle playground adjoins the largest prehistoric cemetery in northwest Germany, the "Pestruper grave field". Countless burial mounds line up as far as the eye can see in the heather. It is the dead field of the same people who celebrated cult festivals in honor of the deity and the dead on the nearby battlefield. How numerous this family must have been is not only evident from this important field; the surrounding area also harbors smaller, scattered cemeteries in the extensive heath and in the forest. The dwellings, fields and pastures of this people must have been in close proximity. Even if their traces have passed, they can still be recognized in the terrain. It is extremely important to find such clan associations with their apartments, cult sites and burial grounds in the Weser-Ems-Land today. "

In 1934 the 1st chairman of the Heimatverein Düngstrup main teacher Wohlers was appointed by the Ministry of State to be a monument conservator. All members of the association should keep an eye on the fact that no disfigurement of nature, monuments and memorials occurs. Wohlers applied for protection for the sheep's sheep.

In 1938 the area was declared a nature reserve, together with the neighboring rose garden.

Traditional heath economy: the sheep's cart

Flock of sheep
Burnt out sheep pen, 2011
The rebuilt sheep cart on the burial ground, 2012

Around 1938 Dietrich Schwarting built a sheepfold on the Pestrup burial ground and started breeding heather sheep. After his death, his son Georg continued breeding. In 1968 the Heimatverein Düngstrup planned to build a new Koben, which was built elsewhere, on a property of the Protestant church at the grave field. A building was built on the leased land with sponsorship money and funds as well as with the help of the local population, which was handed over to Schäfer Schwarting on November 22, 1969. But in April 1973 Schwarting sold the herd and his property to emigrate to Canada. But other shepherds took over the grazing. Playing children set fire to the building on April 10, 1976, but it was inaugurated again on October 15 of the same year. In 1981 a barn was built for straw, fodder and hay, but after that the sheep pen was no longer used. Now the Teerling family made their flock of sheep available twice a year. The shepherdess Regina Kolhoff from Wildeshausen took over the herding, the Heimatverein acquired the property from the church, which until then had only been leased.

Preservation of the heathland, expansion

The "dry sandy heather" that characterizes the flora-fauna-habitat area should be preserved. But after it was found in 2006 that a number of new grasses had settled on the area and the heather leaf beetle had appeared en masse, heather grazing was resumed in 2007. In addition, new heathland was created on an area of ​​7 ha. In the meantime, a shepherd on behalf of the Lower Saxony State Forests is bringing the area into the desired condition with his 100 to 150 Diepholzer Moorschnucken , so that in 2009 it was certified in good condition in the conservation and development plan. In 2017 the Pestrup burial ground was mapped again in order to continue the aforementioned plan. It is also about protecting the sand lizards and other animal species that live there .

Maize was specifically planted on the 7 hectare field adjacent to the south in order to extract nutrients from the soil, a soil that heather and grass pasture prefer. Nutrient poverty is typical for heather soil, which means that the heather area as a whole is to be expanded.

vandalism

In September 2006 information boards were put up at the burial ground, but three weeks later they were destroyed by strangers. The panels were replaced a few weeks later and destroyed again just a few days later. At the end of January 2008, the boards at Schafkoben were rebuilt for the third time. On the night of February 26-27, 2011, a fire was set on the sheep pen, which was rebuilt by 2012.

literature

  • Anette Bußmann: Stone Age witnesses. Travel to the prehistory of northwest Germany. Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89995-619-1 , pp. 92-94.

Web links

Commons : Pestruper Gräberfeld  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde , Vol. 22, 2nd edition, de Gruyter, 2003, pp. 623-625, here: p. 623.
  2. ↑ Dietmar Vonend : Pestruper Gräberfeld declared an excavation protection area , in: Reports on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony 12.1 (1992) 39 f.
  3. ^ R. Müller: Pestruper Gräberfeld , in: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde , Vol. 22, 2nd edition, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, pp. 623–625.
  4. ^ Hermann Wille : Germanic houses of worship between Weser and Ems , Leipzig 1933, pp. 60–62. ( Digitized version ).
  5. ↑ The Schafkoben on the Pestrup burial ground , website of the Heimatverein Düngstrup eV
  6. ↑ The Schafkoben on the Pestrup burial ground , website of the Heimatverein Düngstrup eV
  7. ↑ Autumn grazing begins , website of the Lower Saxony State Forests , October 13, 2017.
  8. ↑ More heathland for the Pestrup burial ground , in: Delme Report, November 20, 2016.
  9. ^ The Pestrup burial ground , website of the Friends of the Urgeschichtliches Zentrum Wildeshausen eV